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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25821586">Breathe</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainCupcake08/pseuds/CaptainCupcake08'>CaptainCupcake08</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wynonna Earp (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Earp sisters, Established Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught, F/F, Gen, No Revenants (Wynonna Earp), One Shot, Other, Wayhaught - Freeform, WynHaught - Freeform, wynaught</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 01:59:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25821586</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainCupcake08/pseuds/CaptainCupcake08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>a One-shot of Nicole dealing with the aftermath of the Earp sisters escaping the garden and coming home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught, Wynonna Earp &amp; Nicole Haught</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>153</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Breathe</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>First Wynonna Fic.<br/>Just a quick one that popped into my head.<br/>I've been awake for forever so apologies for the grammar issues<br/>&lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Nicole!”, yelled Waverly on her way down the stairs, chasing after her fiance who was already out the door.<br/>
“Baby girl? What’s wrong?”Wynonna was up off the couch and by her sisters side in an instant.<br/>
“I don’t know!” huffed out Waverly, hand on the door knob. “One minute we were talking, and hugging and...kissing...”.<br/>
“Oh ew, no” said Wynonna<br/>
“And the next, she’s just...up and running!”.  Waverly throws the door open and steps out onto the front porch of the Homestead.  Nicole a few feet away, hunched over, breathing heavily.<br/>
Wynonna and Waverly both walk quickly towards her.<br/>
Nicole is crying.<br/>
“Baby?” says Waverly hesitantly.<br/>
“Haught, just breathe.  Try to calm down”.<br/>
Nicole stands up, hands on top of her head and looks towards the sky.<br/>
“Baby, what’s wrong?” says Waverly as she reaches her hand towards Nicole, coming into contact with her jacket.  Nicole flinches, Waverly pulls back.<br/>
“Baby…”<br/>
“Please Waverly...I'm fine.  You and Wyn should go back in.  You’ll be cold”.<br/>
“You are not fine!! You haven't been fine since I’ve been back! Since we’ve been back!!” shouts Waverly, not recognizing her own voice.<br/>
“Baby girl...maybe we should give her some space. Come on”, says Wynonna, trying to usher Waverly back to the house.<br/>
“No!” shouts Nicole, grabbing for Waverly, her other arm outstretched towards Wynonna, a look of terror on her face.<br/>
“I mean, I just...I don’t want space I just…need a minute”, says Nicole quietly, moving away slightly. </p>
<p>“Baby, what’s going on?  Are you mad at me?  At us?” asks Waverly, gesturing between her and Wynonna.<br/>
“No, God Wave, no, I’m not mad at you”, tears streaking down her face.<br/>
“Haught, what is going on?  We’re home.  We’re home now, ok?  If it was about me slamming the doors, I just got pissy cuz Doc took my twizzlers, don’t know what a vampire needs with twizzlers but it’s fine. You can relax”.  Wynonna means it in a light hearted way, but Nicole’s reaction is anything but.<br/>
She looks up at both the girls standing there in the snow, staring at them with a look neither woman can place.<br/>
“Relax?” she says, her face hard.  “You think I can relax, Wynonna?!”.<br/>
Wynonna and Waverly step back slightly at the cold voice Nicole is emitting.<br/>
“18 months, 3 weeks and four days”.<br/>
“Nicole…” starts Waverly<br/>
“18 months, 3 weeks and four days” repeats Nicole.<br/>
“Haught, what are you…”<br/>
“A YEAR AND A HALF!!!” shouts Nicole, stopping Wynonna and Waverly in their tracks.<br/>
“GONE!! A year and a half! The love of my life and my best friend.  Gone!”, Nicole stares at them, willing them to understand.  Waverly feels her heart break, tears falling. </p>
<p>“Baby, I’m...we didn’t mean to…” Waverly starts moving forward, Nicole retreats<br/>
“I KNOW!!, I mean, I know...I know you didn’t mean to but that’s just it! Don’t you get it, Waves?”, her voice breaking, both Earp women holding their breath.  Nicole is in agony.  Staring at her lover and her best friend.  Trying to find the words to explain the mess in her head and in her heart.<br/>
“Explain it baby.  Explain it to me.  To us. Take your time.  You have always been so strong, you always take care of everyone else and we love you for it but please baby…please….tell us.  Tell me”.  Nicole looks at Waverly.  Really looks at her.  She turns slightly to catch Wynonna’s eye, seeing the slight nod.  She takes a deep breath.  It’s time. </p>
<p>“I’ve been alone for 572 days.  572 days, living in this house.  Walking through the rooms that hold memories of you.  Of us.  I’ve been without the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.  Your scent was everywhere.  Your laugh...I heard it in every room”.  She's crying now.  So is Waverly.<br/>
“And I lost my best friend”. She turns to Wynonna. “My rock, my hero...you jumped through that portal and you were just...gone”.<br/>
“Haught…”, Wynonna has tears in her eyes as she looks at her best friend.<br/>
“No Wynonna...she needs to get this out” states Waverly, her eyes never leaving the form of her love, tracking her movements as she starts to pace.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying what you had to deal with in the garden wasn’t some fucked up shit, I’m not trying to minimize that but I was gone to you for a couple days.  You were gone for 572.  Birthdays, Christmas….Valentines Day.  Our anniversary…”, her breath catches and Waverly lets out a small sob, Wynonna coming up behind her sister to hold her close as the night wind seems to breathe over the three of them.</p>
<p>“You were just gone. I tried.  I tried so hard to find you both. I went everywhere.  I camped out at the stairs, I went back to the warehouse once my leg was healed.  I gave up being Sheriff, I gave up everything to try to find you. I know I let everybody down and I’m sorry...I’m so sorry but I couldn’t find you! And then Jeremy left, I have no idea where Robin is and I just….”<br/>
Nicole stops moving and takes a breath.<br/>
“I started to forget.  The sound of your voice, the feel of your hands…your kiss” she whispers.  Waverly's knees give out slightly but Wynonna holds her.</p>
<p>“And you” she turns to Wynonna.  “All I wanted to do was grab a drink with my best friend and show her the ring I’ve had in my dresser since my third date with her baby sister cuz I needed her permission to ask her to marry me.  My best friend was gone”.  </p>
<p>Wynonna’s hands grip her sister more firmly to keep herself standing in place.<br/>
The pain on Nicole's face making it hard not to run to her.</p>
<p>“I can’t relax Wynonna” she says in a soft voice.  “I can’t relax, I can’t ignore the loud noises, I can’t stop, because if I stop, even for a second...I might miss something.  I might not see that something is coming for Waverly again.  What if I miss something?! What if something comes for her again and you go after her because that’s what you do and I lose her again?!  I can’t lose her again! I can’t lose you!!  You both...You’re all I have in this world.  I can’t….” Nicole falls to her knees “I can’t do it again.  I can’t lose either of you again.  You are both one half of my heart.  I can’t...I can’t do it again.  I won’t survive it.  It was so….quiet...without you.  It was so quiet and so cold.  I can’t do it again.  Please don’t make me do it again”.  She whispers out that last part.</p>
<p>Waverly doesn’t wait anymore.  She lunges toward Nicole, kissing her for all she’s worth and then hugging her as tightly as she can. </p>
<p>“Baby, look at me please” says Waverly<br/>
Nicole does.<br/>
“I love you.  I am...God I am so in love with you.  I am so sorry. I can’t imagine what you went through.  What you are going through.  If it was me...I wouldn't survive it.  I wouldn’t. I can’t live without you. You are everything and I’m not going anywhere.  I’m marrying you.” she says fiercely.</p>
<p>“You can’t know that Waves” she sniffles out.  “Look what happened last time”.  Nicole slumps down into the snow.  Waverly looks back at Wynonna, desperately and silently asking for help.</p>
<p>Wynonna shakes herself out a bit and walks up to where her best friend and sister kneel in the snow, falling down next to them.<br/>
“Haught”.  She says it so quietly but at the same time, it’s so loud in the silence of the night that engulfs them.<br/>
Nicole looks up.<br/>
“Nicole Rayleigh Haught.  You...you stubborn, heroic ginger, pain in my ass bitch...you are my best friend in the entire world and every world that has or ever will exist.  I don’t normally do this feeling-y thing but you are.  I took you for granted. I know that.  I make fun of you.  I give you such a hard time but Nicole...you are the best of us, don’t you know that by now?  We don’t have to be blood to be sisters.  You are my family.  You are Waverly's family.  You have to talk to us.  I know you’re scared and I….I can’t imagine it.  I can’t imagine what the last 572 days have been like for you.  I can’t, but you have to talk to us.  Pushing us away in an attempt to protect us is stupid”.</p>
<p>“Says the woman who drugged me….”, there’s a slight smirk.</p>
<p>Waverly lets out a small chuckle, her hand coming up to tangle in red hair.<br/>
“Ok fine…” laughs out Wynonna, “shut up, I get it.  The point is...Waverly and I are not going anywhere.  Not intentionally” she adds when she sees Nicole open her mouth to argue, “We would never leave you intentionally. I can’t promise anything but know that we always come back to you.  We will always fight to come back to you because you’re a part of us, just like we’re a part of you.  You’re the love of my sister's life”.<br/>
Nicole looks to Waverly almost as if she needs confirmation, which Waverly readily gives. </p>
<p>“You are baby.  You're the love of my life.  This life and all others in this reality and all that exist”, she adds with a knowing smile.<br/>
“You're kinda the love of my life too, Haught” adds Wynonna  “Platonically, of course”, when Waverly gives her a playful shove.</p>
<p>“I don’t know what we did to deserve you, but you’re stuck with us now ok?  We’re your’s” says Wynonna, reaching a hand up to grasp Nicole's shoulder.  Nicole takes a steadying breath.<br/>
“And I'm yours” she says back, kissing Waverly on the forehead and reaching a hand up to grasp Wynonnas<br/>
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just was trying so hard to protect you and I didn’t...I’m just sorry” starts Nicole.</p>
<p>“Just let us in, ok baby?  We want to protect you too.  You don’t always have to be the strong one.  We love you.  We’re here. We’re staying.  We’re always with you.  I’m gonna be your wife”. Says Waverly, burying her head in Nicole's neck, breathing in the woman that sets her soul on fire.</p>
<p>“My wife” she says , with a smile as she wraps an arm around her fiance's shoulders.<br/>
She looks up, catching the eye of Wynonna.  “Get in here, best friend.  Or should I say, sister-in-law”.<br/>
Wynonna tackles the red head into the snow, resulting in all three laying in a small, but tight dog pile on the ground, laughing as they land.</p>
<p>“You’re really home” breathes out Nicole, gripping the sisters as if they might fly away.<br/>
“Were home baby”, says Waverly.<br/>
“We’re home, Haught”, all three girls lay there, freezing in the night but all three are happier than they’re ever been.</p>
<p>“Can we go inside now? My ass is numb”.  Leave it to Wynonna to interrupt the moment.<br/>
Laughing, they get up, Wynonna gives one last hug to Nicole before running back into the house, leaving the two lovers outside for a minute.  </p>
<p>Nicole stares lovingly into Waverly's eyes, Waverly looks right back, her hands setting around her neck, Nicoles on her waist.<br/>
“So” begins Waverly, “there’s a ring…?” which causes Nicole to smile.<br/>
“Yeah baby” she says, giving Waverly a small kiss, “about time I gave it to you, don’t you think?”<br/>
“Absolutely” she says and pulls Nicole into a kiss.<br/>
“Race you!” shouts Waverly as she turns and runs back into the homestead.<br/>
Nicole stands still for a second, watching Waverly skip back to the house and sees Wynonna in the kitchen through the window. </p>
<p>“They’re home”.  And that thought carries her back to the homestead and back to her girls.</p>
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